Respecting communities in International Development: languages and cultural understanding

June 2018

This report details the conclusions and recommendations of a three year project (2015–2018), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), on the role which languages and cultural understanding play in International Development.

The project (based at the Universities of Reading and Portsmouth) brought together researchers from International Development, Modern Languages and Translation Studies, with colleagues from INTRAC, in order to work with UK-based INGOs, and with NGOs and development workers in Kyrgyzstan, Malawi and Peru.

The research has addressed three key questions:

What is the role of languages in power relations in development work?

How much organisational awareness is there of languages/language policy?

What is the provision of language/cultural mediation including translators/ interpreters?

The report is jointly authored by Professor Hilary Footitt, Dr Angela Crack and Dr Wine Tesseur and is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian.